フィリピンの麻薬戦争犠牲者、墓のリース期間終了で遺骨の行き場なく

【マニラＡＦＰ＝時事】フィリピン・マニラの墓地で、ロゾンさんの白骨化した遺体がひつぎ大の墓から引き出され、遺体袋に入れられた。当時、２４歳だったロゾンさんがフィリピンの麻薬戦争で殺害されてから５年が経過し、墓のリース期間が終了したのだ。（写真は麻薬戦争で殺害されたロゾンさんの遺骨を運ぶ作業員。フィリピン・マニラで）
　人権活動家らによると、ロドリゴ・ドゥテルテ大統領が薬物中毒者と密売人を対象に取り締まりを行うよう命じて以降、フィリピンでは数万人が命を落としたとされる。悪名が高いこの取り締まりで標的となったのは、主に貧困層の男性だった。
　遺体の多くは、コンクリート製の長方形の墓が２～３メートルの高さにすき間なく積み上げられた「アパート式の墓」に納められている。墓のリース期間は５年で、費用は約５０００ペソ（約１万円）だ。こうしたアパート式の墓は、首都圏として広がるマニラの至る所にある。
　遺族が更新料を払うことができない場合、リース期間は終了となる。こうしたケースでは、カトリック教会の慈善団体が遺骨を火葬し、恒久的に埋葬するための支援を行っている。
　マスクと手袋、防護服に身を包んだ男性２人がロゾンさんの遺骨を運び出した。それを見た母親のコラソン・エンリケスさん（６３）は、「遺骨を捨てられたくない」とＡＦＰに語った。
　ドゥテルテ大統領就任当時、子ども７人の母親であるコラソンさんは、フィリピンから薬物を一掃するとした公約を歓迎していた。
　だがコラソンさんは、その公約によって自身の家族が標的になるとは思いもしなかった。
　漁港で働いていたロゾンさんは、夜間のシフトでも起きていられるよう、メタンフェタミンを使用していた。母親によると、息子が射殺されたのはドゥテルテ大統領就任から数週間後で、就寝中に警察によって射殺されたという。
　「息子を家に引き取りたかった。たとえ体がなくても、息子がここにいるのが分かります」とコラソンさんは話し、別の埋葬場所が見つかるまで遺灰をそばに置くつもりだと続けた。
　遺骨収容の取り組みを先頭に立って進めるのは、ドゥテルテ大統領を声高に非難する司祭のフラビ・ビラヌエバ氏だ。今後数年間は、リース期間の終了に伴い、数千の火葬が必要になるだろうと話す。
　司祭は、犠牲者らに「尊厳のある」永眠を与え、また遺族らも気持ちの整理が付けられるよう、遺灰を納骨室に納めたいと考えている。「大切な家族を失うだけでもつらいのに、遺骨まで失うのはあんまりです」
　この気の遠くなるような計画を実行するため、司祭は資金集めを行っている。
　だが一部の家族にとってはすでに手遅れとなってしまった。リース期間終了前に取り出され、袋に一緒に入れられた遺骨があるというのだ。
　ビラヌエバ氏は、「彼らは人間です。こんな扱いはひどすぎます」と憤りを隠せない様子で語った。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2021/08/02-12:46）

Rodzon Enriquez's skeletal remains are pulled out of a coffin-sized tomb in Manila and placed in a body bag. Five years after the 24-year-old was killed in the Philippines' drug war, the lease on his grave is expiring.
Activists estimate tens of thousands of people have died since President Rodrigo Duterte ordered police to go after drug addicts and dealers in a widely-condemned campaign that has largely targeted poor men.
Many of the dead were put in apartment tombs stacked meters high in jam-packed cemeteries across the sprawling capital, where a five-year lease on a rectangular concrete box costs about 5,000 pesos ($100).
As leases run out, a Catholic charity is helping families unable to afford the renewal fee to retrieve the bones of their loved ones with the aim of having them cremated and put in a permanent burial site.
I don't want his remains thrown away, Corazon Enriquez, 63, told AFP, after her son's bones were carried away on a stretcher by two men wearing masks, gloves and protective coats.
The mother of seven had welcomed Duterte's promise to rid the country of drugs.
If you know of any addicts, go ahead and kill them yourself as getting their parents to do it would be too painful, Duterte told the public soon after he was sworn into office.
But Enriquez never imagined the campaign would target her own family.
Rodzon, a fishing port worker who used methamphetamine to stay awake during overnight shifts, was shot dead by police in his bed weeks after Duterte took power, she said.
I wanted to have him at home -- even if his physical body is no longer here, I know he's still there, said Enriquez of the ashes she plans to keep until another location is found.
I still feel the pain -- I would have wanted to swap places with my son.
Father Flavie Villanueva, a vocal critic of Duterte, is spearheading the exhumation effort. He said thousands of cremations could be needed in the coming years as leases expire.
Villanueva hopes to eventually store the ashes in a columbarium to give victims a dignified final resting place -- and help families find closure.
It's already too much that you lose a loved one -- should you also lose his remains? said the priest, who is raising money to finance the ambitious plan.
It is too late for some families. The bones of their relatives were removed and thrown into sacks with the remains of others before the tomb leases expired, Villanueva said.
They're human beings... they deserve better, he added.
- 'Your papa is here' -
On a single day this month, Villanueva oversaw the exhumations of seven drug war dead, as weeping widows and mothers looked on.
Many of the people killed were breadwinners for their families, who now struggle to put food on the table, he said. Extending the leases was beyond their means.
If you couldn't have anything to feed your children, how could I even worry for the dead if the living in front of me are dying, Villanueva said.
Joralyn Fuellas's husband Reynaldo was shot dead by motorcycle-riding gunmen on her 39th birthday.
He had gone out to do an extra shift as a tricycle driver to pay for a special meal to share with her and their 11 children. Fuellas was told later that Reynaldo had been on a narcotics watchlist.
I'm glad I will be able to bring him home, she said after watching the removal of his remains.
I can tell my children 'your papa is here'.
- 'My sweetest child' -
International Criminal Court prosecutors have requested a full-blown investigation into the drug war.
They want to probe allegations that police unlawfully killed as many as tens of thousands of civilians between 2016 and 2019 -- overlapping the first three years of Duterte's term.
Duterte, who is barred from seeking re-election next year, has called the ICC bullshit and vowed not to cooperate.
Felicitas Narvarte, whose son Edward was shot dead outside a shop two weeks before Duterte was sworn into office, blames the president for his death.
Hours after sharing a takeaway roast chicken at their home, Narvarte said she heard gunshots followed by her son's voice calling out mum, mum!.
Only when the person who ordered the killing of drug addicts is jailed will my feelings get better, the 62-year-old told AFP, after placing candles and food in front of her son's tomb to mark the anniversary of his death.
She plans to move his remains to a smaller box that is cheaper and where her grandson -- Edward's child -- can visit.
But she is running out of time to find the money before the final extension given by the cemetery caretaker expires.
I wanted it to be in a good place, I don't want it to be merged with other bones, she said.
He was my sweetest child.